I’ll get right to it: There are some amazingly talented and very strong softball players in Division I of The Villages softball league. The league has many players who have played for decades, at a professional level, who continue excel now. Home runs that travel 300+ is common; there are on average five home runs per game in this division. The problem is down at the newer Farragut fields, where immediately beyond the home run fence is a multi-modal path whereby golf carts, bikes, trikes, joggers, dog-walkers, etc. frequently are passersby and are in direct paths of these massive home runs.
It’s only a matter of time before someone is going to be unknowingly be hit. The rec dept. is aware, as others have communicated on several occasions about the safety issue. Many potential solutions have been proposed including moving this league to other fields (i.e. Saddlebrook) where home runs are not a threat and adding safety nets above the fence line. Not sure why, but the Recreation Department has been eerily quiet on the issue.
My intent with writing this letter is 2-fold:
1) raise the awareness to those traveling on the multimodal near the fields to be watchful and attentive as you go by.
2) incentivize others who feel the same to also voice their concerns to the Recreation Department.
Overall, I think the Recreation Department does a great job for residents. They work really hard and provide awesome services. But for whatever reason this rather dangerous issue has not been addressed – hopefully they can make this a priority before an entirely preventable catastrophe happens.
Mark Margevicius is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.